McDaniels: Red zone performance must improve

One of the numbers that got lost amid all the turmoil in the loss in Seattle was how poorly the Patriots performed in the red zone all day.

Paul Kenyon

One of the numbers that got lost amid all the turmoil in the loss in Seattle was how poorly the Patriots performed in the red zone all day.

Six times the Pats drove inside the Seahawks 20. Those drives resulted in one touchdown.

``Each possession is different. Any time you go down there and you end up with any negative type of play, it can really hurt your opportunity to have success at the end of the drive in terms of scoring touchdowns,'' said Josh McDaniels, the Pats offensive coordinator.

``We were down there six times and didn't score enough. That's obviously an area that we can do better in and we have to do better in and get better in quickly,'' he said.

``If we get the opportunity with six chances down there to score touchdowns and only come away with one, certainly that's not good enough. There are a lot of different situations. Each drive was a different scenario there. We had a few third-and-shorts that we didn't necessarily convert on and we ended up with the two-minute drive that obviously we were hoping for either seven or three [points] there and didn't get it.

``I think overall, your execution down there is really at a premium and whatever you're calling is really at a premium. You've got to do everything right down there because you really have no margin for error. We can do better and we have to,'' McDaniels said.

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